Work to begin in May on Kennewick hotel

A groundbreaking for the new hotel next to the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick is scheduled tentatively for mid-May.

The SpringHill Suites by Marriott will have more than 100 rooms. The Kennewick Public Facilities District also plans to build an enclosed connection between the new hotel and convention center.

A brief update on the project was given during the board's meeting Thursday night. The hotel and connection are expected to open in 2014.

The public facilities district board also is considering whether to seek sometime this year a one-tenth of 1 percent sales-tax increase to pay for an expansion of the convention center -- a move that officials have said would make the center more competitive in the region.

To make the August primary ballot, a decision would have to come in the next month or so.

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